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A crowd of some 3,900 in black caps and gowns, and 21,000 fanatically proud fans in the stands above, turned out at California Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s Commencement Convocation 2013. Apple co-founder and Berkeley alum Steve Wozniak keynoted the event, which was held in the sports venue for the first time in more than 40 years.
Campus news archive
Jerry Brown tells grads ‘you can make change’ 
May 20, 2013: California Gov. Jerry Brown praised students for making a difference in the last election, and encouraged them to continue their activism to improve the world, in his keynote speech at Monday’s political-science graduation.
Media Advisory: Gov. Jerry Brown to address 2013 political science graduates
May 17, 2013: California Gov. Jerry Brown will address UC Berkeley political science graduates May 20.
Berkeley SHIP 2013-14 details announced
May 16, 2013: Chancellor Birgeneau recently announced that Berkeley would leave UC SHIP and return to a campus-based student insurance plan for the next academic year. Details of the campus plan, to be implemented in August, can be found in this post from University Health Services.
Media Advisory: Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak to Address Berkeley’s 2013 Graduates
May 16, 2013:
Apple co-founder, Silicon Valley icon, and philanthropist Steve Wozniak, a UC Berkeley alumnus, will deliver the commencement address. The event will also include remarks by outgoing Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and this year’s top graduating senior Ritankar Das, a double major in bioengineering and chemical biology from Fremont, Calif. During the ceremony, Das will receive the University Medal for his scholarship, public service and humanity.
Breslauer, Wilton on Albany mixed-use development
May 15, 2013: In a letter released earlier today, George Breslauer, UC Berkeley executive vice chancellor and provost, and John Wilton, vice chancellor, administration and finance, promise to “continue to work collaboratively with the City of Albany and others to stay the course and fulfill the community desires for development on this site.”
Dorothea Lange winner hopes to inspire change with her photos 
May 15, 2013: In South Africa, UC Berkeley graduate student Molly Oleson photographed farming women seeking better conditions; In India, she captured the lives of girls in Bihar, who are traditionally left uneducated; in Brazil’s Amazon, Oleson will document indigenous communities’ struggle to protect their land and culture from destruction by a new dam. For her work, Oleson won the 2013 Dorothea Lange Fellowship.
Law school’s Altholz wins 2013 Yamashita Prize
May 14, 2013: This year’s Foundation for Change: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize has been awarded to Roxanna Altholz, an assistant clinical professor of law and associate director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at Berkeley Law. Altholz successfully represented 127 family members of 28 individuals who were forcibly “disappeared” between 1983 and 1985 by Guatemalan security forces.
Biology scholars thank Birgeneau, Breslauer
May 13, 2013: More than 50 students and 30 alumni of Berkeley’s Biology Scholars Program gathered recently in the Durant Hall atrium to thank Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer for their support.
UCPD team to ride in Special Olympics benefit
May 13, 2013: For the fourth year, members of the campus police force will ride in Bike the Bridges, a 25-mile fundraising ride to benefit Special Olympics Northern California. Others are invited to join the UCPD team or support it with pledges. The event takes place Sunday, June 9.
Holder urges law-school grads to work for ‘a better world’
May 13, 2013: U.S. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder delivered the commencement address at Berkeley Law on Saturday, congratulating graduates on what he called “your chance to help realize your vision of a better world.” Here is a video excerpt of his remarks.
Trespassers removed from Albany mixed-use development site
May 13, 2013: At approximately 4:30 a.m. Monday, 20 people were asked to leave the mixed-use development site in Albany or face arrest. Over the course of the morning, three people were arrested for trespassing and interfering with the police
Berkeley’s top seniors eager to make learning count
May 10, 2013: Luke Bonham, Danielle Nicholson, Daniel Price and Leena Suleiman share insights from their time at Berkeley as they survey the road ahead.
Law students lend a hand to undocumented students
May 10, 2013: A special project of Berkeley Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic and the campus’s Undocumented Student Program has helped 103 Berkeley students decide whether to apply for a special immigration category that allows them to work legally and to avoid deportation. Most have won approval under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
Crown Prince of Norway visits, agreement signed with Haas
May 10, 2013: On a swing through the Bay Area, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit spent the afternoon at UC Berkeley Thursday, meeting with Chancellor Birgeneau and signing a technology-sharing agreement with the Haas School of Business.
Douglas Clark appointed new College of Chemistry dean
May 9, 2013: Douglas Clark, the current chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Warren and Katharine Schlinger Distinguished Professor in Chemical Engineering, has been designated the new dean of the College of Chemistry.
Bike to Work Day at Berkeley, in photos
May 9, 2013: Hundreds of people strapped on their helmets and rode their bikes to UC Berkeley Thursday in celebration of Bike to Work Day, and some of them sent in their photos. Take a look.
Campus bids farewell to the Birgeneaus, with burgers, hot dogs and good cheer
May 7, 2013: The campus community came out to bid farewell Tuesday to Chancellor Robert and Mary Catherine Birgeneau, who greeted well-wishers at a barbecue lunch on the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Plaza.
Committee named to find Berkeley’s next provost
May 6, 2013: A committee of Berkeley administrators, faculty, students and staff has been formed to advise Chancellor-designate Nicholas Dirks on the search to replace Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer, who has announced his intention to retire at the end of 2013.
Chancellors see Berkeley’s future through students’ eyes
May 3, 2013: Dirks, who takes over as Berkeley’s chancellor on June 1, and Robert Birgeneau, who has held that position for nine years, took a lunch meeting in a Durant Hall conference room with the winners of the campus’s Fiat Lux Remix contest.
Students check out incoming chancellor
May 3, 2013: Nicholas Dirks introduced himself and fielded questions at a conversational meet-up Thursday afternoon between UC Berkeley students and the campus’s next chancellor. About 100 people turned out for what Dirks called one of the “first of a long series of conversations with you.” Earlier in the day, Chancellor Birgeneau and Dirks met with student winners of the “Fiat Lux Remix” contest.
Chancellor announces return to Berkeley-operated student health plan
May 2, 2013: In response to student urging, the campus will withdraw from the UC-wide student health-insurance plan (UC SHIP) and return to a UC Berkeley-operated plan starting in mid August. Chancellor Birgeneau announced the decision in a May 2 letter to the campus community.
Two faculty named Guggenheim Fellows for 2013
May 1, 2013: Two UC Berkeley faculty — improvising pianist and composer Myra Melford and English literature scholar Joanna Picciotto — have been named Guggenheim fellows for 2013, an award conferred for both achievement and promise.
Campus Shared Services IT center takes stock of early success
May 1, 2013: In mid January, Campus Shared Services Information Technology began supporting more than 3,700 UC Berkeley staff from its home base in West Berkeley. The IT group, which has been closely tracking customer satisfaction through anonymous surveys and user testimonials, reports on campus users’ largely positive feedback so far.
Nicholas Dirks, history prof
May 1, 2013: Appearing not as a future chancellor but as a fellow faculty member, Nicholas Dirks led a history department colloquium Tuesday on the topic of “Scholars and Spies: World War II and the Emergence of South Asian Area Studies.”
From Marin to The Hague, working for justice
April 30, 2013: Alexa Koenig, who is finishing up her dissertation as she settles into her role as executive director of the Human Rights Center, plans to “engage pretty deeply” with the center’s work in war-torn regions all over the globe.
Chancellor looks back: ‘a period where leadership mattered’
April 26, 2013: In an interview with NBC11, Robert Birgeneau talks access and excellence, Dreamers, and how — despite a budget model for UC Berkeley that has changed in response to severe state funding cuts during his time as chancellor — “we still spend our money, as we should, like a public university.”
Fourteen staffers, six teams win Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards
April 25, 2013: Fourteen staffers and members of six teams will be honored Monday (April 29) as the UC Berkeley campus recognizes the 2013 recipients of the Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Awards. Chancellor Robert Birgeneau will hand out awards and shake the honorees’ hands. The 2 p.m. event will be streamed live online.
Berkeley named one of America’s ‘Bicycle Friendly Universities’
April 25, 2013: The Bicycle Friendly University program recognizes institutions of higher education for promoting and providing a more bicycle-friendly campus for students, staff and visitors.
Cal Day 2013, in words and pictures
April 23, 2013: UC Berkeley threw open its lecture halls and research labs, museums and libraries, galleries and gardens to some 40,000 members of the general public Saturday. It was a day that, for many, won’t be topped until Cal Day 2014. View a slideshow, or follow the day’s events via Storify.
